Our Wormery

Today we collected minibeasts. When we say minibeasts we mean worms, beetles, earwigs, slugs, snails, spiders and flies. We used tweezers to pick up the minibeasts, we used containers to hold them in. Finally we used magnifying glasses to look at them closely.
We also collected soil. Using the magnifying glass we discovered that soil is made up of (or composed of) small stones, sand, rotten leaves and grass and little bits of twigs.  Teacher told us that worms can be used to make soil much better.
We learned that for €3 'Christian Aid' will buy 1kg of worms for a farmer in India so that he can make compost to help his crops grow.
Worms are so good for soil that we decided to make a wormery. Now we can watch our worms (all thirty of them) make patterns as the help the soil and leaves in our wormery.

You can make you're own wormery at home. All you need is a plastic bottle, sand, soil and dont forget to put in worms! (",)

Here is a video of what we did today!
Talk about it at home to your parents, brothers and sisters!!!

Grandparents Day February 2nd 2011

Today we had our grandparents in class for a cup of tea and a few biscuits. We sang a song for our grandparents and we also sang the national anthem. Ciara played the tin whistle and Séan read a prayer that we wrote;

God please watch over our grandparents,
All through the night and day,
Keep them safe and show your love
And keep all their worries away.

We asked our grandparents questions about when they were young.

We learned that nuns used to teach our grandparents and that they would get six slaps if they got in to trouble. This seems very cruel.

A person who writes with theitr left hand is called citóg.
Our grandparents used to go home from school at lunch time.
Odhran's Mamó brought in lots of old things that she used to use when she was a little girl.
We saw a hotwater bottle made out of porcelan.
We saw a lamp for the sacred heart picture that used to hang in every house.
We saw a high nelly bicycle and some old Irish coppers like the pound, shilling and pennys.

Jim's Granny made the day very special for Jim when she gave him a war medal that his Great Grandfather earned in world war one. She also brought in a communion badge that was over one hundred years old.

Naoise's grandad told us a few stroies about school. He used to live in a semi-deatached house that was built in 1918.

Diarmuid's granny and Ciara's granny brought in pictures from when they were little.

Carragh's Grandad told us about his lunchtime at school, we are so lucky that our lunchboxes are stuffed with food every day. It was'nt like this before. He also told us about how his parents were afraid to turn on the light switch!!!

Many more grandparents told us stories and it was so great to learn about Ireland a long time ago!
Thanks to all the Grandparents who helped to make this week so special. We will never ever forget it!

Here is a video that might help us remember things that happened on the day!!